The Team behind NeoRate

NeoRate was initially developed by Dr Don Sharkey, Associate Professor of Neonatal Medicine at the University of Nottingham. Initial work involved testing the theory of a 6 second visual timer to improve heart rate assessment of newborn infants during simulated resuscitation.

This resulted in the production of a small flashing electronic timer by Dr David ‘Ed’ Morris, Assistant Professor in Electronic Engineering at the University of Nottingham.

A number of simulation trials demonstrated the 6s rule worked and improved accuracy of heart rate assessment and the time taken to perform it.

This then resulted in the development of the App by Don with the a team in Computer Science at the University of Nottingham. This was led by Dr Peter Blanchfield and three MSc students Christian Tamakloe, Mohamed Ismat and Peter Okhiria.

Trials using the App were then performed by Dr Caroline Henry, neonatal clinical research fellow, and Dr Shin Tan, Academic Clinical Fellow – both at the University of Nottingham. This work was done in conjunction with medical students (now qualified doctors) Sophie Coleman and Andrea Pereira. Andrea presented her thesis as a platform presentation in the resuscitation section of European Academy of Paediatric Societies meeting. Caroline won the Dresden Neonatal Resuscitation prize for best oral presentation at their conference.

The App has been supported by Funding from the University of Nottingham and The Chiesi Foundation with the aim of making available, for free, anywhere in the world. The finals apps were developed with Dr Catherine Proctor, Computer Software engineer at SurePulse Medical.

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